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Lucas Returning to Digital Animation
deadwood writes "It seems Lucas is creating a Digital Animation studio as a subsidiary of ILM, according
to this Yahoo! article.
Lucasfilm Animation is created roughly 17 years after George Lucas sold Pixar to Steve Jobs. I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?"
Lucasfilm Animation is created roughly 17 years after George Lucas sold Pixar to Steve Jobs. I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?"
I wonder if Episode VII-IX would be a good choice as first projects?
Dear god no! It wasn't the technology that was the problem with I, II (and, no-doubt, III), but piss-poor stories. It wouldn't have mattered if Lucas did I, II, III, VII, VIII, or IX as live action, animation, stick figures, a puppet show, or Kabuki theatre unless he has a plot that doesn't suck the sweat of a dead donkey's balls they'd still stink.
You could have done Monsters, Inc with sock puppets and it still would have been entertaining.
Lucas hasn't recently shown that he can deliver the plots and characters that are necessary to make an animated film work.
3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
Of course we can still draw by hand.
In fact a lot of drawing by hand is involved in CG films (Pixar, etc.)-- they do all of the initial design (characters, environments) on paper-- and they storyboard the whole movie out (complete with rough voice overs, sound, etc.) just like they do for most traditionally animated and even live action movies.
It's just another medium for artists to use.
sig
I thought Jar-Jar was already dead by Edisode 4...
First... full disclosure: I am a supporter of George Lucas, and have enjoyed (completely) EP I and II and am eagerly awaiting EP III... and am old enough to remember the first time I saw EP IV (on opening weekend).
Now, to my post.
There's something folks need to understand about Mr. Lucas. He makes films to satisfy his own desire to tell the stories he wants to tell and do it the way he wants to do it.. and if that just so happens to be something you like, then great... if not... well... George isn't going to loose any sleep over it.
He's truly an independant, and does things his way. I'm not saying that critics are not entitled to do what they do... but I believe that there's a fundamental misunderstanding folks have, and that GL isn't going to change or modify this story or how he tells the story to satisfy the critics or even the audience. Look at EP III... it won't have a happy ending, it will be dark and it will be full of simple dialog and amazing (stunning IMHO) effects and probably the best LS duels yet shot.... and still there will be critics (haters) that will blame GL for "raping" their childhood and going on and on how *they* were let down and how "violated" they will feel.
Its all pretty laughable.
sad robot making broken music
It can't be any worse than Episode I and II. And, after all, Lucas gives absolutely no freedom to his actors, so replacing them with animated characters wouldn't change a thing.
I'm not too big into 'Wars, but the last news I heard was that 7-9 WERE NOT going to be made.. Also, that whole "1-3 sucking" thing could convince one to NOT fix something if it is not broken..
I really have no idea what I am talking about.
I'm also quite tired of the people who bitch about how great the first trilogy was and how boring/stupid the second trilogy is turning out to be. Look, Star Wars (the first one) was not that great a movie. But we loved it anyway, because it was cool. Empire was darker, and we loved it too. Jedi had Ewoks, and they were annoyingly cute, but we still loved the damn movie! Why? Because it was still really damn cool!
Now I will grant you that Jar-Jar got a little anoying at times, but on the whole, Episode 1 and 2 were damn cool movies. So what if Anakin and Jar-Jar bumbled their way through to victories in Ep1? They were not the stars of movie, folks. The stars showed up to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and they found they were all out of bubble gum. Although Qui-Gon found a piece right there at the end, and that was a bit disappointing.
So, to those who think Ep1 and Ep2 somehow sullied their memories of the original trilogy, I say go watch the trilogy again. I mean, really watch it. Watch all the bad acting and bumbled lines. Watch the melodrama and sap. Watch the forced and often unfunny humor given us through the C3PO/R2D2 banter. And then go enjoy Episodes 1 and 2 for what they are: damn cool action flicks.
"Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised."
-Marilyn Manson
Is that available on a XXXL Hanes T at thinkgeek?
That statement says worlds about Lucas, Hollywood, and America today.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Hear Hear!
I just watched the star wars trilogy for the first time in ages last weekend, and I was struck by how much more realistic the models looked than the CG stuff in ep 1 and 2. Maybe because they were "real" (small, but actual physical objects). Oddly, the CG stuff in LOTR looked fine to me, and blended into the rest of the film seamlessly, so who knows.
I can't put my finger on "why" exactly, that is just how I feel.
Finkployd
Think of that first short with the lamp, way back -- who'd have thought they could make it so expressive? Or all those birds on the line; they all look alike, but the little character touches set each one apart.
George Lucas, on the other hand, can have someone like Samuel L. Jackson in a movie and make him deeply boring -- even as a Jedi Freakin' Knight! Does anyone think Lucas improves his actors? Anyone? Does he direct for nice little character touches??
What George wants this splinter company to do is make huge, distractingly detailed landscapes and gratuitously gigantic battle scenes. Take a look at the battle at the end of Episode II; that's what he thinks computer animation is about. He's as bad with character touches as any director out there.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Yeah... because to get truely wooden performances, you need puppets.
Maybe Lucas should switch to making movies with no characters in them whatsoever. He can then dispense with his really awful dialog. Stick to "Triumph of the Will" like marching scenes and space ships blowing up, George.
face it, he's embarrassing himself...
I guess on the positive side, maybe he'll hire some animation people that can create something of actual worth. alas he'll probably produce blatant (and stupendously inferior)pixar ripoffs....
yaaawwwwwwnnnnnnnnnn
ok, flame away
That's all I need to say.
Ep IV was the same story we've seen done before. Downtrodden young person finds out he (or she) is secretly better than everyone else instead of worthless/boring. This is the same story as the Potter novels, Spy Kids, The Lizzie McGuire Movie, The Princess Diaries and countless other stories.
It's a decent plotline (it sure gets enough use) and the point of it is to give hope to those who feel their life is worth nothing.
The point of the story is that everyone can be worth something. You just need to go out and do something with your life.
But this story is ruined when Lucas switches the ability to use The Force from a mystical thing that anyone could have in us, to merely a bunch of midichlorians (a thinly covered version of the weird mitochondria stories) which you either have or don't have a birth. If you don't have them, then you truly are forever to be low. That's the revised explanation Ep I gave us.
When a movie is poorly written enough to invalidate the plotline of a good movie with it, then it is bad.
Same deal with Highlander II. In Highlander I, the immortals are dueling for the prize. They must be pretty damn important since they are all important and everything and are dueling for a prize the rest of us cannot have. And they have this mystical energy in them...
But in Highlander II, the story is rewritten. Now they are interstellar criminals brought here in a prison ship. Presumably they are banished to a backwater planet (ours). And as a further punishment they are given immortality. Does that make any sense to you? Not only is Highlander II a lousy story, but it ruins the story of Highlander I.
No, you are mistaken. Ep I sucked. Ep II sucked too.
Yes, Ep IV-VI have faults in them, I'm not going to deny that. But taken on their own they work a whole lot better than the two new films.